Can we talk? We need a national discussion about guns in America

Children young enough to still believe in Santa Claus, and still too young for the scary realism of television news, were gunned down in their own elementary school in Connecticut.

Enough.

The initial reaction was, first and foremost, shock and sadness. The White House on Friday pointed out that "today is not that day" to address possible gun control. This should serve as a reminder: The gun lobby owns the conversation about guns in America. So let's grant it to them: Give them the conversation on all guns. The defensible guns in homes and on shooting ranges, and the guns that go into schoolhouses and murder little children.

There's no rational way to defend the status quo. There's a cliché -- if you outlaw guns, (you know the rest.) And elaborate schoolboy fantasies of some Rambo-esque conceal-carrying sharpshooter taking out a theater shooter in full body armor, or a young man mass murdering young children.

Reportedly, some of the teachers leading the children out of the massacre were telling them to avert their eyes, to try to shield them -- just a little -- from seeing the bloody scene that surrounded them. But we've been averting our eyes from these tragedies for too long. Parents, mental health experts, gun lobbyists, Congress members, and the president of the United States: Look at these tragedies head-on. Regardless of your politics, look at the pictures of the victims in happier times, and look at the horrified faces of the children who narrowly escaped death at school on Friday and come to the table.

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No one's arguing that a homeowner who chooses to have a handgun to protect his family, or a sportsman who shoots at a range, or a hunter who uses guns to legally kill animals, should be kept from gun ownership. But in shielding those Constitutional rights -- which are at risk only in the exaggerations and lies of those opposed to any common-sense gun control -- we've created an untenable situation. Each "worst" tragedy you read about will be outmatched in an unbearable stream of one-upmanship. Eleven of the 20 worst mass shootings in 50 years all over the world have been in the United States. Finland is in second place, with only two.

We don't have to live in a world where going to the mall, or to a movie, or to elementary school might mean we'll be shot and maybe killed along with a number of people. Sure, it's still statistically improbable, but it's hardly unique. People remember where they were when they heard about Columbine. What about Binghamton? Aurora? Virginia Tech? Ft. Hood? Tucson?

We react with initial horror, are told by the NRA that "this isn't the time" to talk about it, and then the national horror movie fades to black. Until the next mass shooting. This time, let's keep it rolling.

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